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Little USB Drives Get Bigger

Techstination feature for Tuesday, July 27, 2004

Those little USB drives get bigger and bigger. Bloomberg Boot Camp, a report on today's technology. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes…some are built into pens, others include cameras or music players. Little USB drives are being discovered by more and more computer users as a way to easily carry files of all kinds. M-Systems…is the leading manufacturer…where Blaine Phelps says….

We've seen incredible growth. You've seen a hundred percent growth in the last four years from when it was first introduced in 2000 to this year…we're looking at over forty million units shipped in the worldwide market, and over a billion dollars in revenue."

And that may accelerate as prices continue to fall. Phelps says USB flash drives that can hold as much as a gigabyte…may sell for under a hundred dollars by the end of the year. M-Systems is adding new encryption technology to make files stored on the devices more secure…

"The primary guy is the business user. He's got his presentations. He's got his files on there so he can take them home and work on them from home which allows the company not to have to stress out about the data that's being taken out of the company because it's all secure, totally incapable of being hacked or anything like that because of the security. So the business user can now take his Powerpoint presentations, his Excel spreadsheets…whatever…home with him."

If the USB drive is lost or stolen, M-Systems says no one will be able to access what's on it without the correct password. Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin.